Instaclustr Managed Apache Kafka vs Confluent Cloud
See Why Instaclustr Offers the Best Managed Apache Kafka Over Confluent Cloud.
If you are building real-time data streaming for your applications then Apache Kafka is the answer. It is the leading streaming and queuing technology for large scale, always-on applications.
The Instaclustr Managed Platform will not only let you build and deploy an open source Apache Kafka cluster in minutes, it also delivers a highly performant, reliable and scalable solution with low latency.
High-Level Differences Between Instaclustr Managed Apache Kafka and Kafka on Confluent Cloud*
| Description | Instaclustr Managed Apache Kafka | Confluent Cloud |
| Managed Service for Open Source Technologies | ||
| Managed Service | Instaclustr is a dedicated Managed Service and Support provider with more than 70 million node hours of management experience. Our focus is on running open source software at the highest level of reliability. | Confluent is a software development company providing managed services, developing and licensing a proprietary distribution of Apache Kafka and related tools. |
| Managed Platform | In addition to Kafka, Instaclustr Managed Platform also provides other open source technologies including Cassandra, Spark, Redis, and Elasticsearch so that you can use a single provider for your data infrastructure. | Only Kafka |
| Open Source | 100% open source | Mix of open source and proprietary offerings available |
| Cost | Transparent pricing—you simply pay your cloud provider charges and a flat management fee on top of that. | Confluent charges approximately $0.10 USD for each gigabyte stored, sent in, and sent out of the cluster. A total charge of $0.30 USD per gigabyte. |
| Security Certification and SLAs | ||
| Independent Security Certification | Instaclustr is the first managed service provider to be SOC 2 certified for its Cassandra applications, and this has been extended to all our managed service applications including Managed Kafka. Additionally, we are Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) compliant. Contact us about HIPAA compliant options for health data. | SOC 2 Type and PCI-DSS is available |
| Uptime SLAs | Instaclustr provides guaranteed SLAs and provides up to 99.999% for critical tier clusters with dedicated ZooKeeper (except developer nodes). | 99.95% |
| Downtime SLAs | 1.01 minutes | 50.4 minutes |
| Cloud Providers and Plan | ||
| Amazon Web Services | Yes | Yes |
| Google Cloud Platform | Yes | Yes |
| IBM Cloud | Yes | No |
| Microsoft Azure | Yes | Yes |
| On-Prem Managed Service | Yes | No |
| Automatic Use of Multiple Availability Zones | Yes | Yes |
| Fixed Monthly Price Inclusive of Cloud Provider Charges (Run in Our Account) | Yes (as an option) | No (transaction volume based pricing) |
| Run In Your Own Cloud Provider Account | Yes (as an option) | No |
| Transparency to Underlying Resources | Instaclustr’s pricing and deployment model allows you to understand exactly what you are paying for. | Pricing available on bandwidth consumption i.e total amount of data transferred in and out of your cluster. Two types of plans : Basic and Standard, both have different pricing. For Enterprise offering, most likely they provide an option for dedicated resources and the pricing for that is through custom contracts and is not clear on their website. |
| Support | ||
| 24/7 Expert Support | Yes for all use cases. | Confluent Cloud support is available under 4 plans. 24X7 coverage only available for Business and Premier Plan. |
| Support Tiers | Enterprise-level, critical application ready support for all production clusters. | Nothing with Basic Choose any of the 4 support plans Single support policy for Premier. |
| Kafka Version Support | v2.1+ with user choice of version. | Latest Confluent Platform version only. |
| Monitoring | ||
| Monitoring Dashboard | Instaclustr provides a fully managed console where you can manage and monitor all your data. The best aspect about Instaclustr console is that it is fully managed and you can work on all your open source technologies on Instaclustr Managed Platform from a single command center. | Confluent provides a self managed control center for Kafka and some console based monitoring |
| Monitoring API | Key Kafka metrics are available via the Instaclustr Monitoring API and can easily be integrated with 3rd party monitoring solutions such as DataDog and provides Prometheus format endpoints for a single view of your application stack. Instaclustr has a more extensive Metrics API. | Proprietary format Metrics API |
| Technology Parameters | ||
| Upgrades | Yes—with zero downtime model and timing agreed with customer. | Yes—timing entirely at Confluent’s discretion except for breaking changes. |
| VPC Peering | Yes—Custom VPC which allows customers to create Kafka clusters in their existing VPC. | Available for dedicated clusters in AWS and Azure. |
| Managed ZooKeeper | Yes—We provide an option for dedicated ZooKeeper nodes which provides benefits in situations that require high performance and reliability | Yes |
| Backup and Restore | ZooKeeper backup and restore. Active/Active Kafka Architecture using Mirror Maker 2 in a managed Kafka Connect cluster available as a option. | Unknown |
| Streams API Customers can write and run their own streams applications on their own servers. | Yes | Yes |
| Provisioning API Create a Kafka cluster via API | Yes | No |
| Terraform Provider for Cluster Management | Yes | No |
| REST Proxy Provides universal access to Kafka from any network connected device via HTTP | Fully Managed REST Proxy available as an add-on when creating Instaclustr Managed Apache Kafka cluster. | Self managed by customers |
| Schema Registry Data compatibility with a central registry for schema format and evolution | Fully managed Schema Registry support as an add on for Kafka offering on Instaclustr | You can use Confluent Cloud Schema Registry to manage schemas in Confluent Cloud. |
| Managed Kafka Connect Kafka Connect is part of Apache Kafka | Fully managed Kafka Connect available on Instaclustr Managed Platform. Bundled with our Kafka Connect are fully supported connectors for Cassandra, AWS S3, and Elasticsearch. | Specific connectors supported. If you want to run a connector not yet available in Confluent Cloud, you must run it yourself in a self-managed Kafka Connect cluster. |
| Custom Kafka Connectors | You can deploy your own custom developed connectors, connectors from the open source ecosystem, or connectors that you have licensed. We can also build the custom connectors you require. | No |
| Migration Migrate an existing Kafka installation to Managed Service. | Migration planning and execution provided at no additional cost. Zero downtime migration available in most cases. | Unknown |
| Data Balancer | Instaclustr support team ensures topics stay balanced when new nodes are added. | Confluent provides automatic support. |
| Active/Active Managed Kafka Mirroring Replicates data between clusters within or across regions for DR and other purposes | Fully Managed Apache Kafka MirrorMaker 2 including relevant SLAs and configuration UI. | Self installed and managed—Confluent’s proprietary Replicator software. |
| Service Broker | Instaclustr Service broker which adheres to Open Service Broker Standard industry specification allow customer’s cloud native apps running on Kubernetes to seamlessly integrate with the Instaclustr Managed platform while remaining fully portable across various Cloud platforms. This enables customers to build multi-cloud, hybrid-cloud environments. This is in addition to existing Instaclustr’s bespoke APIs. | No |
| Tenancy Model | Dedicated clusters | Multi tenant (standard offering) |
Instaclustr Advantage
Instaclustr Managed service for Apache Kafka is the best way to run Kafka in the cloud, providing you with a production ready and fully supported Kafka cluster in minutes.
Our commitment to open source is based on the real benefits that we see on a daily basis. Developed by large communities, open source is delivering benefits such as cost, flexibility, transparency, security, and technology freedom.
As the open source-as-a-service company, we regularly commit patches and new features to the projects. A few selected examples of our contribution to the world of open source include:
We provide fully managed Apache Kafka database clusters, integrated with other core data layer open source technologies.
Instaclustr’s technical operations teams have extensive experience running, operating, and supporting open source software. Our support options give you around the clock access to deep technical support
Security has been baked into Instaclustr’s platform and operations since Day One. We understand that you are trusting us with your valuable data, and we take that responsibility very seriously. As part of our security focus, several of our offerings are PCI-certified, and we have been SOC 2 compliant for several years. Both of these certifications require individual and regular external compliance audits.
We support both Run In Your Own Account (RIYOA) and Run In Instaclustr’s Account (RIIA) for our Managed Kafka and core open source technologies
On our managed platform, Kafka can be provisioned on AWS, GCP, and Azure and is bundled up with a host of additional features ready for enterprise deployment.
70 million+ node hours under management and managing over 7PBs of data across a wide and diverse set of use cases and industries.
Today’s leading companies are using Instaclustr to manage, scale, and optimize their open source deployments. Know more about our customers
Enterprise Support Offering Instaclustr Kafka vs Confluent*
| Features | Instaclustr (Enterprise Support) | Confluent – Support only available with purchase of Confluent Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Technology | 100% Open Source Apache Kafka including Kafka Connect, MirrorMaker, Zookeeper and Kafka Streams. Schema Registry and REST proxy also supported. | Confluent Platform—based on open source Apache Kafka but with proprietary extensions. |
| Response SLAs | As low as 10 minutes (20 minute standard) 24 x 7 critical incident resolution guarantee. | 30 minutes response SLA for the Premier Plan for Critical business impact cases. |
| Commercial Offering | Support – you use the free, open-source software and pay Instaclustr to provide the assistance you need for quick resolution of issues and reliable operations. You are free to continue using the software if you end your use of Instaclustr’s services. | Licence—you are paying Confluent for a licence to use their proprietary software on a subscription basis. A level of support is provided as per traditional proprietary software. Should your subscription lapse, you no longer have the right to use the software. |
| Price | Typically significantly cheaper | Typically significantly more expensive |
| Operational Support | Yes – from hands-on operators working in our managed service operations team | Yes |
| Code-fix Support | Yes | Yes |
| Monitoring, Data Observation & Topic Configuration | Instaclustr provides a free licence for Operatr, a powerful tool designed to assist developers truly understand their Kafka application, with Apache Kafka support subscription | Confluent Control Center and KSQL provide some similar functionality |
24X7 Instaclustr Expert Support for Apache Kafka
Backed by our 24/7 expert support team, the Instaclustr Managed Platform will eliminate the operational burdens so that your development and SRE teams can focus on building your application.
*The comparison is based on publicly available information at the time of publication.